What a night! (Long review of new arrival with lots of pictures)

[mlcor]

So, a while ago on the “drooling” thread, I posted a picture of a watch that I had instantly fallen in love with when I saw a picture of one for sale at my favorite local dealer. By the time I called to ask about it, it had been sold, but it continued to prey on my mind and I did my usual stalking and research.

My final collecting goal is to own one each of the big three—Vacheron Constantin, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. I have the VC, as you all know. For a while, I thought I would get a silver dialed Royal Oak; however, a month or so ago, I tried one on, and for several reasons, decided it wasn’t for me. (As Geoff breathes a sigh of relief. )

But the watch I had fallen in love with was an Audemars Piguet, too, and would tick the "AP" box. So I called my contact at the dealer, and he was able to source one, brand new, for me to look at—no pressure, if I didn’t like it in real life, no problem. Huge advantage to having a relationship, especially since this model is no longer in production. Well, we got together last night, and that was that. It’s absolutely beautiful, the price was as good as the best gray market (a large discount off list). A dressy chrono had been on the want list, and this should take care of that permanently. So, without further adieu, here is the Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars Chronograph:





As you can see, it is a stylistic tribute to the 1920’s-30’s, but a modern interpretation, introduced in 2009. It’s a perfect size for me, 41mm, but wears a bit smaller IMO due to the style. It is reasonably thin for a chrono at 12.6mm, and part of that height is the slightly domed crystal, so it slips comfortably under a shirt cuff (a must for me). A 30 minute dial is on the left, running seconds on the right. The hands are all black, except for the seconds, which is gold. There is a tachymeter scale, plus a minute track, and red numbers every five seconds that add a bit of color to the dial, which I love. I also love the vintage style Arabic numbers, which are slightly raised on the beautiful white lacquer dial. The only writing on the dial is the company name, the word Automatic, and the Swiss Made stamp (not counting the tachymeter scale). There’s a fair amount going on, but I don’t find it too busy, especially since there’s no date.



Both subdials have guilloché work so fine, I can barely capture it with crops from my iPhone.





To be continued in the next post...